I grew up in a small town in the far western part of Kentucky. It had many things to offer, however ethnic diversity was not one of those things. From an early age I was intrigued in different countries, nationalities, and cultures. Later on in life I realized that this was God working in my heart showing me His love for the nations. Serving as a student pastor in a vary diverse city and missions mobilizer is the realization of a dreams I had at an young age.

As I made my way to Alpharetta, GA to serve on the pastoral team of a church plant I had friends leaving to go around the world. I have close friends all around the world serving in the mission our God has given us. I struggled for a long time with the uncertainty of God’s plan for my life. Understanding the great need around the world and God’s desire for all people motivated me to want to go every place I read about. Very quickly I came to the realization that I am not omnipresent and could not teleport. This brought me great distress for along time until I realized that through discipleship I could make an impact on this world. It was with this heart I began to serve as a student pastor.

No matter how much I desired to see missionaries sent around the world and have a multi ethnic youth ministry it does not come easily. God has been very good to our church in the last 3 years in letting us see a glimpse of heaven by having people from many different tongues worshipping in our church. I have collected a few thoughts that I will share with our youth workers to help keep us on the target laid out by a Biblical model of ministry.

Here are a few questions I want us to ask ourselves…..

Is our youth group demographically reflective of our entire church family?

We believe, as I imagine most youth ministers do, that our youth ministry is not a separate ministry of the church but an integral part of the purpose of the church. As we started the church we did not waste anytime with our mission statement. We felt that was clearly laid out through the Great Commission. We are here to teach (evangelize), baptize, teach (disciple) in this community and around the world. This starts with making sure we are reaching out to every type of teenager in our church. We do not have a separate youth ministry for our spanish speaking members or for the teenagers whose parents attend the International Bible Fellowship. We are are one church so our teens all participate in one youth ministry.

Is our youth group demographically reflective of our community?

A more difficult question then being demographically reflective of your church is asking if you are reflective of your community. This means that if 20% of your community is hispanic then you should we should expect see something close to this in our youth ministry. For example, 4% of the people in our community is are from India. As a youth ministry we prayed for the county of India and ask God to send students to us from India. Shortly after we began to pray for this we saw some students show up who were from India. It was a great joy to see them and to see the reaction of our students when they knew God sent teens to us. They were received with open arms. It is amazing how when you began to pray for something you notice the answer to it may be next do and just be one invitation away.

Are we reaching out to all the “people groups” of our area?

Serving from several years as a full time missions mobilizer I have had several discussions with people about “un-reached people groups”. Steve Shadrach in the Fuel and the Flame challenged campus ministries to look at their campus through this filter. I have adapted this idea to the concept of youth ministry. When I grew up in youth ministry the thing to do was sports. The vast majority of the young people in the group loved sports. Today we have many, many options. Some kids are into music, some sports, some gaming, some drama, and the list is endless. If we only had events with one group in mind we would be really limiting ourselves. Let’s not be a youth ministry for one type of student. Let’s not also be a youth ministry of all anglo students or all of anything.

Joys of a multi ethnic youth ministry….

Listening to Adam and Sarah talked to their friends in youth ministry via Skype from Morocco filled my heart with excitement for our multi ethnic youth group. Then to see two young men praying for their families in city of Cali, Columbia must my hear nearly explode. It is so much easier to keep the world in front of our students when the world is literally in front of them. They do not see the learning of another language as impossible. They learn to appreciate and love different cultures. They learn that as great as our country is it only makes up 4% of the world’s population.

Challenges we face in multi ethnic youth ministry…

As my wife and I sat on the floor in the home of some of our teenagers we realized that we have alot to learn if we truly desire to lead a multi ethnic ministry. Do we finish our plate? If we do will they think they did not put out enough food? If we do not finish the plate will they think we did not like the food? Having students from several different countries causes us to be students of the world. As Christians with a world view we should be students of geography and culture. When we teach on dating and marriage what does Zara think. Her family plans on arranging her marriage. So many questions have to asked and answered when reaching out to different nationalities. However, it is so exciting and rewarding.

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